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Advertising The Internet Hardware Technology

AdTrap Aims To Block All Internet Advertising In Hardware 295

Posted by timothy from the because-it-is-hateful dept.
cylonlover writes "AdTrap is a new low-power, zero configuration device which promises to banish adverts from computers, tablets, and anything else connected to the local network. AdTrap's creators point out that their device works not only with full-sized PCs, but everything else connected to your home internet, such as Apple devices running iOS 6 – and without the need of third-party apps or jailbreaking. In addition to blocking web browser ads, AdTrap is also reported to remove ads from streaming devices like Apple TV and Google TV. A configurable 'whitelist' is offered too, so that users can allow adverts on websites of their choice."
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AdTrap Aims To Block All Internet Advertising In Hardware More

AdTrap Aims To Block All Internet Advertising In Hardware

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  • Countermeasures Deployed (Score:5, Funny)

    by Sentrion ( 964745 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:13AM (#41991585)

    This is why I place ads on the main page of my websites and you can only view content from the popups.

  • Embed ads into directly into HTML (Score:3)

    by Zandamesh ( 1689334 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:14AM (#41991589)

    Make them indistinguishable from a normal .png or a piece of text. Or is there some technical reason why this can't be done?

    • Re:Embed ads into directly into HTML (Score:5, Insightful)

      by h4rr4r ( 612664 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:17AM (#41991623)

      Because these days ads are not served from the same source as the content. They used to be in the past and likely will again in the future if this sort of thing catches on.

      • which would be great so it'd be a lot more unlikely for drive-by malware install ads to run, and if they ran the website owners wouldn't have the typical excuse of "oh sorry, one of our ad networks was compromised, we apologize"

        • Re:Embed ads into directly into HTML (Score:5, Interesting)

          by nschubach ( 922175 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @12:14PM (#41992245) Journal

          I'll bet Ad Proxies will become common before they host the files locally... it will look like it's coming from the server you are getting the content from, but the server is just relaying the ad from their ad host.

          • Re:Embed ads into directly into HTML (Score:5, Informative)

            by Canazza ( 1428553 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @12:25PM (#41992403)

            As a web developer that thought makes me physically ill...
            I begrudge doing that with sites I set up myself and *trust* the content on, let alone random-ass third parties.

            That way lies security nightmares.

            There are three reasons why remote-hosting adverts (and user-generated content) on a seperate domain is a good thing:
            1) Shares the bandwidth load between two servers
            2) An extra seperation between Content and Application makes for simpler updates
            3) Malicious Injected content can't pretend to be from my own domain and is sandboxed by modern browsers.

        • which would be great so it'd be a lot more unlikely for drive-by malware install ads to run, and if they ran the website owners wouldn't have the typical excuse of "oh sorry, one of our ad networks was compromised, we apologize"

          Why wouldn't they? Just because the request from your browser goes to their server doesn't mean their server is the root source of the content; it is not at all impossible to have the website server, in handling a request for an ad with a "local" URL, make a request to the ad net

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

        That gets complicated. If you're not serving the ads from your server you have to trust the people who run the website. All the fancy click counting will go away, which the advertisers will hate. And if the advertisers hate it, I'm for it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Lumpy ( 12016 )

      Those are easily filtered as well. 99% of ad's are a specific size. Look for that and SMOOSH!

      Privoxy as looked for and filtered specific sized image files for nearly a decade to scrub site hosted adverts.

    • To add to everything that was said, and supposing that things like click counting, trust, etc get resolved, you'll also have to pay for add serving with your own bandwidth.

  • Pixelserv on DD-WRT (Score:5, Informative)

    by Metabolife ( 961249 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:15AM (#41991599)
    Already does this.. for free.. http://www.howtogeek.com/51477/how-to-remove-advertisements-with-pixelserv-on-dd-wrt/ [howtogeek.com]
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
        • I don't know which Buffalo router you have but the one I have was terrible with DD-WRT. I had to TFTP it back to the Buffalo customized DD-WRT because the community stuff had unreliable WiFi, reboot issues, and other problems. Turns out that the WiFi on the router is terrible, stopped working after 6 months and I ended up getting a more expensive router just to use for WiFi. I used to love Buffalo, and now the only thing I like about them is the ability to get the power of DD-WRT without having to go th

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Lumpy ( 12016 )

          It wont. He is making money off of taking it commercial and is ignoring the public DD-WRT. Pick up OpenWRT, it's far more advanced now than DD-WRT

          • I would if they'd actually support my router [openwrt.org].

            It's not new, it's been around for a while. ddwrt is the only version I found when I bought it years ago that would actually work on it.

  • no (Score:2, Interesting)

    by lister king of smeg ( 2481612 )

    If they hardwired the blocking in to it the ad sites could simply play a name game and get away with serving adds so it is obviously software just on another box, second this won't stop ads that are encrypted traveling over ssl if embeded in the site correctly. It is more convenient for me to block ads at my own device using no script and adblock plus, as for my mobile devices I could simply blacklist IP addresses and domains at my own router and do everything this box claims to do already. Fail fail and mo

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Even if the ads are encrypted, if the IP of the ad server is blocked, the ads are not getting across.

      My concern about a device like this is that it ups the arms race. Right now, I use Adblock, NoScript, and Ghostery on FF, and "click to play" and Adblock on Chrome without issues. With devices like this, websites will start denying content, similar to an old EQ2 wiki site where I had to use greasemonkey to get around the JavaScript.

      Ads are less of a concern for me. The fact that ad servers are a very larg

    • You can do all that. 250 million non tech sophisticateds can't.

      I could write my own browser if I wanted to. You're missng the point.

    • Re:no (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ceoyoyo ( 59147 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @12:06PM (#41992159)

      "as for my mobile devices I could simply blacklist IP addresses and domains at my own router and do everything this box claims to do already"

      Now pull yourself out of the Slashdot groupthink and pretend you don't know the difference between a router and a modem (and don't care). This is a box you plug in and it gets rid of a lot of ads. No need to install stuff on every computer, no need to fiddle with black-thingies and I-pee addresses (these Internet people think of such such stupid names).

  • First, someone is going to Sue them for some asinine reason, based on loss of revenue, or some such nonsense.

    Second, Product Placement will become the advertisement of choice, since it's a lot more difficult to remove or block. On websites, it'll be background wallpaper, or in the motif. You want placement? Better pay what it's worth to a site, series or production!

    After all, the Ad companies, "need" to bombard us with their dreck, or we won't feel the need to rush out and buy it.

    You know, like Cigarettes.

    O

    • Product Placement will become the advertisement of choice, since it's a lot more difficult to remove or block.

      Yep. But if you'll be able to donate whatever you like to remove the ads. For sites that are built around a product I'm selling, you won't ever see ads. Hosting isn't that expensive unless you're dumb. Even multi-gig software updates cost me nothing thanks to decentralized distribution and public key encryption / signing.

      Protip: People are Decentralized. The Internet is Decentralized. Decent

  • it is called:

    Block sites directly via their DNS server which gives back a NXDOMAIN for where it is propitiate.

    Easy solution this f*ck advertise problem.

  • Ads aren't really the problem any longer (Score:3)

    by edawstwin ( 242027 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:30AM (#41991767)
    For me, the ads aren't really the problem on webpages any longer. It's the awful cluttered formatting. Every article I read lately has several breaks in the text for unrelated videos or headlines for other articles, and 1/4 to 1/3 of the right side of the page is just a mess of other crap I'm not interested in. Plus, multi-page articles that are only six or eight paragraphs to begin with, just to get more page impressions. That is a sure way to get me to never visit your site again. I'd really like a browser that just gives me the text that I want to read - I'll even take an old-school banner ad at the top if it gets rid of all of the other crap.
    • Those side banners and having to resize every singly page are largely why I paid $3-$5 for a manga reader on my phone (that basically strips the images from the host sites). I no longer have any ads to deal with while getting my manga fix.

    • I do wonder about how badly it will screw up the layout of a website to pull whole chunks of it out. At work, our corporate overlords block Facebook, but I often find that without Facebook, the space that it should have been place it grows to accommodate the scolding message from our IT department about how Facebook is blocked, covering part of the content of the damn page! I even added Facebook to my hosts file, but now I just have a giant 404 iframe that again covers part of the content.

      The Huffington Po

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Hatta ( 162192 )

      For me, the ads aren't really the problem on webpages any longer.

      Ads aren't the problem for me either. I use Adblock Plus and NoScript.

  • I am opposed to this. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Chardansearavitriol ( 1946886 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:33AM (#41991781)
    The problem isnt advertising. The problem is F***ing obnoxious advertising! FLASHFLASHFLASH HEY THING ITS HEY THING! Or, adservers that lag and wont let the site load. And when they do load, see above. So many flash adds that they crash a browser, or make it unworkable. obnoxious, grating, irritating ads. Id happily unblock adds..Its just when I do, I get ALL THAT again. No matter how long its been. Its like its 2000 still.

    • Re:I am opposed to this. (Score:5, Informative)

      by jeffmeden ( 135043 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:52AM (#41991977) Homepage Journal

      The problem isnt advertising. The problem is F***ing obnoxious advertising! FLASHFLASHFLASH HEY THING ITS HEY THING!
      Or, adservers that lag and wont let the site load. And when they do load, see above. So many flash adds that they crash a browser, or make it unworkable. obnoxious, grating, irritating ads.

      Id happily unblock adds..Its just when I do, I get ALL THAT again. No matter how long its been. Its like its 2000 still.

      Most content managers will counter with "well if you want free content you can come and get it" but at this point people (consumers and content providers) should be able to figure out what it is that readers really want, instead of taking anything that MIGHT generate a stream of eyeballs and ad the crap out of it (and instead of users following links to read the same information over and over). Here is a hint: taking a news article that you swiped from somewhere else (or worse, poorly re-authored with no thought and no English skill) and putting a timed popup ad that smacks me after about 15 seconds is a really good way to make sure I never pay attention to anything from your site ever again.

    • Re:I am opposed to this. (Score:5, Funny)

      by sl4shd0rk ( 755837 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @11:53AM (#41991985)

      adservers that lag and wont let the site load. And when they do load, see above. So many flash adds that they crash a browser, or make it unworkable. obnoxious, grating, irritating ads.

      Come now, let's not bash Slashdot too badly.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Pope ( 17780 )

      Just block Flash, and 99% of the irritants go away. Sites have to be paid for somehow.

    • Re:I am opposed to this. (Score:5, Interesting)

      by JohnFen ( 1641097 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @12:33PM (#41992531)

      The problem isnt advertising. The problem is F***ing obnoxious advertising! FLASHFLASHFLASH HEY THING ITS HEY THING!

      For me, the bigger problem is the tracking that goes along with the ads. If no advertising did tracking, I probably wouldn't bother to block them.

  • ...does it work with Windows Media Center or XBMC to cut streaming ads without killing content streams?

  • but not ad's.

    They really don't bother me as long as they aren't all flashing in my face style.

    Have people really become so useless at ignoring shiny flashing things that they MUST look at the adverts, and then click them?... If a site so is bad the adverts are offputting I stop using it.

    On slashdot I rarely see ad's as they let me turn them off :D

  • All I can say is how much does it cost and can it be circumvented?

  • I don't even see ads anymore, thanks to ad blindness. They're easy enough to mentally block (except for the auto-expanders), that whatever they're selling doesn't really register.

    • Yeah, I have that too. Are they really that hard to mentally block out? Only if they the cause the page to lag, or auto start some obnoxious video is it really a problem for me.

  • It's Adnix. And by the look of it, we might soon need Preachnix. It's all for a good cause though, giving your money to Hadden so he can build the second machine.

  • It would be grand if there was an adblocker where you could whitelist sites _AND_ it still doesn't display the ads. I am fine with a select few sites seeing that I received their ads but they don't have to know that my browser isn't displaying them. The ads can go straight to /dev/null

  • What is this ADVERTHOSIMENET you are talking about?

  • We see adblocking software all over. Firefox addons, things for rooted androids and the like. Most often, they rely on some sort of hosts file or other host identification. (Thanks APK, no one could have thought of that before you did... oh wait... they did... it was too obvious.) But that sort of functionality really needs to live somewhere on the network. I haven't started googling yet, but I'm willing to bet there is some version of DD-WRT out there which will do that for me. But the idea of buildi

    • Up the price and sell it as a security and monitoring device...

      If the Kickstarter page is anything to go by, it will already cost you over $100 for the box and there's open wording on if they will have a service to keep it up to date. I don't know about you, but that's pretty expensive for what amounts to a selectively forwarding router. Most routers can be bought for much less than that and are fully programmable.

  • Why do people expect something for nothing? (Score:3)

    by TheSkepticalOptimist ( 898384 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @12:33PM (#41992533)

    I know the day that free web content and services dry up because there are no more ad revenue streams, the same people complaining stupidly against ads will want to complain about how the web is now hidden behind pay walls. The irony is that most of you won't be able to voice your opinion because you will refuse to pay to access Slashdot.

    Actually, I think many of us might value when that day arrives.

  • Or is this going to be like the parental control software that blocks porn, with the definition of "porn" including "any web site that expresses a political opinion we disagree with"?

    It's always a matter of trust. And has has been pointed out, in this case, you're trusting a company that has built it's business model on denying other companies income they rely on to say in business.

  • Sounds cool, but I still have some questions. Can't wait to see the ads for it.

  • Sorry if someone has already posted this, I didn't see it in any of the popular comments while browsing.

    I'm a sysadmin and I use something similar for my networks that's free. It's a Linux based firewall for complete idiots called Untangle. (I don't work for them or contribute to the project.) They have an "app" (also one of the free ones) that runs adblock on everything that passes through the device.

    Take any old crappy PC, buy a NIC ($10-$20 investment), burn Untangle to a CD. It's a typical Next-

  • ... Gizmag popups in the linked article?

  • Looks phony - typical Kickstarter "Spare Change" (Score:3)

    by Animats ( 122034 ) on Thursday November 15, 2012 @02:30PM (#41993807) Homepage

    Watched the video. It's all about their little hardware box (which is some ARM machine), and says nothing about how it blocks ads. At the wire level, you can certainly apply a domain blocklist, for which there are already many free software tools. That gets rid of many ads, but not all of them.

    Some (not yet many) sites resist ad blocking. Some Flash-driven videos won't play if you block their ad server. Some get the ads and the video from the same place. Some ad services have each site create a subdomain (like "ads.example.com") for ad serving, so blocking by second level domain doesn't work. Look at the constantly changing blocklists for AdBlock. The problem is almost as bad as signature-based virus detection. The people with this little box say nothing about this.

    The one big advantage this device offers is the ability to block ads on closed systems like Apple products. A big disadvantage is that the device has a backdoor into your data stream and could be an attack vector for eavesdropping.

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